Separatists’ trial stirs up Catalonia issue

TWELVE Catalan politicians go on trial today for their role in Catalonia’s failed 2017 independence bid, putting the spotlight back on Spain’s biggest political crisis in decades.

Catalonia defied a judicial ban by carrying out a referendum and subsequently unilaterally declaring independence in October 2017.

There was shock at home and abroad when police used batons and rubber bullets on protesters on the day of the vote. Some of the Catalan separatist leaders were arrested or fled.

The trial will refocus attention on the region’s push for secession which so rattles Spain’s identity.

The trial will decide if Catalan nationalist leaders stay in jail. The public prosecutor is seeking prison terms of up to 25 years on charges of rebellion and misuse of public funds. At stake are Spain’s stability, the future of Catalonia’s independence movement as well as the region’s and the central government’s image abroad.

“It’s the most important trial we have had in democracy,” Supreme Court president Carlos Lesmes said, referring to the return to democracy in Spain after dictator Francisco Franco’s death in 1975.

Raul Romeva, one of nine defendants jailed without bail since late 2017, has made clear his view it should end only with an acquittal. “A (prison) sentence would weigh forever on history and on Spain’s future,” Romeva said.

At the time of his arrest, Romeva was foreign minister in Catalonia’s regional government and a member of the European Parliament.

Fellow defendants include veteran Catalan politicians Oriol Junqueras and Carme Forcadell. Notably absent from the list is former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, who is in self-imposed exile in Belgium.

Pro-Catalan independence protests had quietened down over the past months, but separatist groups have called a series of protests in Catalonia and in Madrid to coincide with the trial. Their supporters say they are political prisoners, while Madrid accuses them of breaking the law.

Among the many witnesses will be Mariano Rajoy, who was Spanish prime minister at the time of the independence vote and its aftermath.

In Catalonia, support for the 12 is not unanimous. The population is largely split between those who favour remaining part of Spain and those wanting to secede.

After imposing direct rule on Catalonia in October 2017, Madrid called regional elections that December to curb the independence movement. This backfired and the secessionists retained a slim majority in the Catalan assembly.